Bernie Sanders is the only candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination with a viable path to victory who supports federal cannabis legalization.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont endorsed the full legalization of cannabis in his first run for the Presidency. He has maintained his support for cannabis legalization immediately upon taking office.
Democratic Presidential Candidates’ Records on Federal Cannabis Legalization
All the other candidates who supported full cannabis reform in the race dropped out or are marginalized, except for Bernie Sanders. Thus, for those who want to see federal cannabis legalization happen, he is the candidate to vote for.
Elizabeth Warren also supported cannabis reform. However, she has not been doing well at all in the race for the presidency. She did not even win her home state of Massachusetts last night. Tulsi Gabbard is also apparently still in the race. But she’s not doing well at all, either.
Former Vice President Joe Biden has a muddled position on cannabis. He initially said he supported decriminalization. At one point, he said he didn’t even support that until he was almost backed into a wall. Then, he declared his support for cannabis. However, as a Senator from Delaware and the Judiciary Committee Chairman, he was adamantly in favor of the War on Drugs.
He is now leading Bernie Sanders in delegates after failing to win the first four races.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg only won the primary in American Samoa last night. (Did you know that was a thing?) He dropped out this morning.
Bloomberg has a poor record on cannabis as the Mayor of New York, where he was elected as a Republican. While admitting he consumed cannabis, his stop-and-frisk policy penalized minorities for possession of cannabis. He was forced to end this policy by a federal judge and many protests after a great deal of controversy.
He then criticized people who used cannabis, saying it could ruin young people ruin their future.
“If the science shows that there’s a real problem, then I’d be hard-pressed to understand why we should let young people ruin their future,” Bloomberg added.
Presidential Politics and Evolving Positions Double Talk
Every state that has legalized recreational cannabis has made it illegal to sell to minors. Moreover, claiming that an insufficient amount of scientific research has been released is a common tactic of prohibitionists to delay cannabis reform. Secondly, people have been smoking cannabis for decades without any of the ill effects that prohibitionists often ascribe to it. Third, children have benefited from cannabis’s medical effects. It is especially effective in treating seizures in children, among other issues.
Before he declared his candidacy for President, Bloomberg called cannabis reform “perhaps the stupidest thing anyone has ever done.”
Now that he is running for president and cannabis reform is very popular, he has sought to modify his position by conceding the value of decriminalization.
Bloomberg really is not a Democrat. He claimed he was a Democrat prior to being elected Mayor. But then he was a great supporter of George W. Bush’s re-election when the 2004 Republican convention was held in New York City.
Moreover, because Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa) supported some nominal gun reform, he spent millions supporting his political campaign in 2016. This helped Toomey win, and the Republicans kept control of the Senate.
